Moving on Up

Yesterday, Iris and Esme had to give up the baby bucket car seats and move to big girl seats. I have truly mixed emotions about the move. First, I am glad that we won't have the bucket seats taking up space in our house any longer. It seems that they are always in the way. But, neither girl is really sitting up very well, so it makes it very difficult to bring them into a store. I have to take a stroller, which means I cannot push a cart, which makes it a struggle to get more than one or two things at a time. But the girls had exceeded the weight limits of their infant seats, so we had to make the move.

It is hard to believe that this month the girls will be eight months old! Hard to believe that they have now been out of the womb longer than they were in it. The last eight months have certainly gone by so much faster than the eight preceeding them! The girls are now rolling over regularly. You can no longer set them down and leave the room for a moment and expect them to be where you left them. Both also really love the exersaucer and the jumperoo. They have started to play with toys. And recently, Iris figured out how to play Peak-A-Boo. Both girls are now huge! For girls who were born six weeks early, they have caught up and then some. At their last doctor's appointment both had reached 27 inches long and are now 23+ lbs. Whew, they are big babies! Eli, who is 3.5 years old is only 10 lbs heavier than his not quite eight month old sisters!

To get the car seats, we went to the Falmouth Fire Department's car seat program day. Falmouth does free inspections the first Thursday of each month to ensure that car seats are installed correctly and that parents know how to properly install them. All you have to do is show up and they will inspect your seats installation and double check that there have been no recalls. Additionally, they have car seats that can be purchased at wholesale prices, which is much less expensive than purchasing the seats at a store. However, because the girls had actually exceeded the weight limits of their infant seats, we were given car seats for free. That's right, FREE! They also checked Eli's seat to ensure that it had not be recalled. Had it, or had he no longer fit into it correctly, they would have also provided him with a free seat as well. Their main goal is to make sure that all kids are safely secured in the car, not to sell seats. They do not want any child to be in an unsafe seat because their parents cannot afford to purchase a seat at the time of inspection. These inspections are done in many local towns, not just Falmouth, and if you are a resident of Southern Maine, you may want to call around to your local fire departments to see if a program is being held near you.

We made a donation to the program to say thanks for the car seats! And thankful we are! When you are buying for two babies, the costs so quickly add up. Two copays at the doctors, double the amount of baby formula every week, twice as many diapers, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. I am very thankful that this service is offered to the people of Southern Maine (and maybe other parts as well) and so are my baby girls, who now have comfy, new, safe, big girl car seats to ride in!

Big Girl Esme

Big Girl Iris